“I’m leaving my husband and the church because I don’t want to be in ministry anymore. It’s too hard and my heart isn’t in it. I want to be a normal person. I’m tired of living in a fishbowl. I’m ready to find peace.” — exact words of a real client (pastor’s wife) attending intensive therapy at a Christian counseling agency.
The underlying cause for the multitude of pastors leaving pastoral ministry centers on two critical issues – marriage/family difficulties and burnout. Included in this equation is a wife who is herself overloaded and isolated.
Working with many pastors’ wives in marriage counseling I see the fragile state that many women in ministry and those serving beside their husband in his church are in.
It is sad that we haven’t taught the caregivers ways to pull away, find peace, and take care of themselves. Jesus knew this important principle and practiced it often. The performance and demands placed on the female counterpart in ministry are often overwhelming.
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